Learning the System

Tipping and scrolling through my phone, I searched for the tutorial. There were apps for many things, but there was no app called Tutorial or something like that. I opened every app and looked in there, but I still found nothing.

'Oh well. I don't want to bother the person in the tent again. Then I will have to explore the apps on my own.'

Having already seen the Map app and the Profile app with my stats, I opened the Market App.

[[ Marketplace ]] (Coins: 16990)

-[Potions]

-[Armours]

-[Weapons]

-[Food&Drinks]

-[Skills]

With my gaze focused on the upper right corner of the screen, I saw that my money has been decreased by 10 coins.

'So she charged me ten coins for 3 loaves of bread.'

I raised my other hand with the bread in it and took a large bite. The texture of the bread was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Chewing on the crust of the bread, loud cracking noises came from it. The inside of the bread was so soft that it made my mouth drool.

With a freshly baked smell in my nose, I asked myself, 'Who is that person to make such good bread and have a lousy tent?'

My curiosity was peeked and I walked back to the tent while taking another bite from the bread.

I grabbed the curtain again and moved it to the side. Ducking my head and going in, I saw a whole new view than before.

The girl was gone and the room was now full with stacks of cards and an old geezer sitting cross legged behind the towers of cards.

The cards were stacking before him like he had built a skyline from a big city: some big towers and some small ones all next to each other, tightly packed together.

His winter-white hair was sparse and was nearing to bold. His wrinkled hands supported his chin as he looked lifeless with his eyes at the cards.

There was not a single trance of emotion on his timeworn and wrinkled face. The crow's feet under his eyes showed clearly that he doesn't sleep much or maybe not at all.

'Where is the girl? And who is he?' I asked myself and snipped with my fingers to get his attention.

"Hah?! Ah! A customer! Welcome! Welcome! Have a seat!" he welcomed me with a big grin over his face and pointed to the ground, inviting me to sit down.

I sat cross legged onto the ground and scrolled on my phone to the message logs.

When I found the message which I got from the girl, I turned my phone around, showed him the message and pointed at the name 'Anauel':

[01:13PM] [Message]: You received (3) Bread Loaves from Anauel.

The smile faded from the old man's face, and devoid of emotions he answered, "Are you searching for the shop from that person? Sorry, I don't know him or her."

'What? He doesn't know her? . . . Well, I guess it's fine. I still have more bread and I can check out this store too. '

I laid my phone to the side and looked over his goods. Most of the cards were grey in colour and had a picture of weapons on it. Some of those had a black circle and some a purple one. There was even a grey card of a dagger with a black circle and one with a purple one.

I grabbed both cards and held them towards him, pointing to the circles of both of them in the hope to find the difference.

The old geezer stared at me, and when he saw that I grabbed something of his stack of cards, his emotions bloomed forward and there was a bigger smile than before, showing his few teeth.

"You want to buy them? Because the black one is the lowest level, I will charge 5 coins per card. As for the purple one, it costs 10 coins because it is a level higher than the black one and therefore way more powerful."

I tilted my head to the side and made a confused expression while knitting my brows. I hoped that he would continue his explanation that way.

"Oh. You see: Cards have levels. The colour of the circle tells the level of power of the item. Black circles are the lowest level. Afterwards are Purple, Green, Blue, Red, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Some people even say that there are items above gold-level."

'So my bread is what? A godly food?!' I was shocked with my jaw dropping down. Before I could even process this information the geezer continued with his explanation.

"As you can see here in the stack of cards, nearly all my cards are grey and have a black circle."

"Grey cards mean that they are weapons. White stands for Food and Drinks, Orange are potions, Yellow are armours, and skill books are colourful like a rainbow. Depending on the effect of the skill, the colour can vary."

"If a skill focused most on protection, then the colour will be like the one from armour. If the skill focuses on attack, then its colour will be more like the one from weapons."

I looked over the cards and saw that what he said was right.

The only cards here which weren't grey were orange. And there were only two of them: one black-circled health potion and one black-circled mana potion.

Slipping my fingers through the stack of cards, I grabbed the health potion card, 200 black-circled dagger cards, and 1 purple-circled spear card.

After grabbing most of his cards, the old man stared at me and asked, "You want to buy them all?"

I nodded and stretched out my phone. But the old geezer shook his head and his sparse hair flew through the breeze.

"First you pay me. Then I will give you my items," he said with a hoarse voice. He stretched his bony hand out and showed me his phone.

[Small Health Potion] x1 (Black circled) = 20 Coins

[Simple Dagger] x200 (Black circled) = 1000 Coins

[Desert Spear] x1 (Purple circled) = 15 Coins

[Payment]: 1035 Coins

"Press your finger on the screen."

Doing as he instructed, I pressed my finger against his phone's screen. And after a second a message came to my phone:

[Message]: You received (1) Small Health Potion from Lao Tong.

[Message]: You received (200) Simple Daggers from Lao Tong.

[Message]: You received (1) Desert Spear from Lao Tong.

All the cards which I grabbed before flashed in a white light and disappeared, moving into my inventory.

The old man was smiling over both ears with small dimples showing on his wrinkled face.

"Because you bought so much and are probably new here, I will give you a tip: There is an arena in the middle of the city where people fight against monsters to show their strength. You can make decent money there and if you are good and the prince likes you, you can work under him."

'Fighting against monsters sounds perfect. I need to know what types of monsters exist and what they can do. This sounds like a good place to gather some knowledge and gain money in the meantime.'

I politely smiled and nodded to the old man, giving him my thanks.

I stood back up and went through the curtain back to the busy and loud street.